Operator Error

As I stated in my first post, this blog will not cover only the wonderful things that occur at theme parks. With that in mind, tonight's post will be about the tragic monorail accident that occurred over the holiday weekend. In case you missed the first news story on this accident you can find an an article that sums it up here.

The only other development to come about from this was first posted on ScreamScape. According to the article, the driver of one monorail that had already left the station was going full speed in reverse to reach a switch in order to be stored for the night. This report conflicts with preliminary reports that the driver killed had originally rear ended the other monorail. Essentially the posting attributes the accident to human error, "...the blame all comes down from a major miscommunication between Central Monorail Control and the Monorail Shop while they were directing Monorail Pink through the procedure to take the switch beam from the Epcot line over to the Magic Kingdom expressway beam, before heading back to the shop for the night."

Apparently, there is a safety system in place that is referred to as MAPO. The basic function of MAPO is to ensure that these types of accidents do not occur and that every monorail travels at a safe distance and speed. MAPO "...was in an “overide” mode at the time, which is standard procedure anytime monorails are switched from one beam to another. At this point in time the pilot of Monorail Pink was pretty much going on the word of the control tower that everything was normal."

So with the automatic safety systems in an overide mode and tower controllers giving orders to the monorail driver, my only question is: Who is at fault? Would it be the driver for not using his rear view mirrors to detect what was going on behind him? The tower controllers for not properly instructing the driver(s)? Or is there something else going on here? What must be kept in mind is that this was the Fourth of July holiday weekend, a very busy time for theme parks. Perhaps, one of the drivers was over worked that weekend or maybe one of the drivers started his celebrating a little too early?

Either way there are lots of questions that need to addressed. For the sake of the killed drivers family and also for peace of mind of future monorail guests Disney needs to take action to ensure that something like this never again happens at the Happiest Place on Earth.